The oil world benefits from the COP29 showcase

(Baku) Bosses, ministers and consultants from the world of hydrocarbons present themselves on Friday as essential partners in the energy transition at COP29, a UN conference which, according to NGOs, gives too much space to lobbies.

Dozens of events around the theme of energy have been held since Friday morning at the Baku stadium and in an adjoining area where many companies or lobbies have stands.

The program includes the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, the United States (the world's largest oil producer) and other countries, executives from solar and gas companies, entrepreneurs from the carbon and “net zero” markets. », and the CEO of the French company TotalEnergies.

“Yes, we are part of the climate problem,” but “we are in a logic of continuous progress,” even “if we never go fast enough” in the eyes of society, Patrick Pouyanné told AFP. Following an event with the president of the Azerbaijani oil company Socar, with which TotalEnergies operates a gas field in the Caspian Sea, 100 km from Baku.

The UN conference, hosted by Azerbaijan, is chaired by a former Socar executive, Mukhtar Babaev.

Like last year at COP28 in Dubai, NGOs denounced the presence of hundreds of business representatives and fossil fuel lobbyists, numbering 1,773 of the latter. At the entrance to COP29, a giant snake supposed to represent their interference in the UN negotiations welcomed the delegates on Friday morning.

“Fossil fuels are devastating people’s lives,” denounces Makoma Lekalakala, of the NGO EarthLife.

“We demand an end to energy colonialism in the South,” Bhebhe, from the NGO Power Shift Africa, among the demonstrators, told AFP.

Activists are not the only ones to consider the COPs under influence.

“It is unfortunate that the fossil fuel sector and petro-states have taken control of the COP process to a level that is not healthy,” said former US Vice President Al Gore, who In a presentation in the plenary room, he did not fail to point out Azerbaijan's greenhouse gas emissions, as he had done in Dubai.

BP, ExxonMobil

Some 53,000 people are accredited this year (excluding technical staff and organizers), according to the UN, a figure in the high range for a COP, but far from the Dubai record.

New UN rules make it easier for observers to scrutinize the presence of lobbyists, with participants having since last year to declare their employer and their relationships, financial or otherwise, with the entity seeking accreditation for them.

Among the national delegations, Japan brought the coal giant Sumitomo and Canada, the oil producers Suncor and Tourmaline. Together, the Western majors Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Eni, brought together a total of “39 lobbyists”, according to the NGOs.

Estimated at around 1,800, the exact number of fossil lobbyists could be different, because the authors of the report included in their count people linked to companies whose main activity is not fossil fuels, such as EDF or the champion Danish renewables company Orsted.

And the record presence of companies at COP28 did not in any case prevent the first agreement in the history of COPs to call for a gradual exit from fossil fuels.

“Too slow”

One week before the end of the conference, where are the negotiators from nearly 200 countries on the main issue: how will developed countries provide the 1,000 billion annual dollars (or more) necessary for developing countries for their climate action?

“Honestly, the work is moving too slowly,” admitted Azerbaijani chief negotiator Ilachin Rafiev.

“No one is going to get wet before Wednesday” on the figures, predicted to AFP a direct participant in the negotiation sessions, which are held behind closed doors. Ministers are expected next week for the end of the talks.

In the meantime, on Friday, diplomats are awaiting a new draft text to bring together the positions of the countries, which are currently very divergent.